Maple sugaring: a New England tradition

How is this mild, so-far snowless winter going to affect the maple syrup season this year? I have been asked this question a lot this year as have other sugarmakers in the area. The answers are as variable as the New England weather. Some say the lack of cold and snow will shorten the season and reduce the sugar content. Others say that the early warm weather will extend the season at least a couple weeks as long as the producer was set up in time to collect the sap.Typically, a cold winter leading up to the freezing nights and thawing days of mid February to late March is what we expect will produce the best conditions for the sugaring season. The change in temperature creates a pressure inside the tree that is greater than the pressure outside the tree, thus causing the sap to flow. During cooler periods, when temperatures fall below freezing, suction develops, drawing water into the tree. This replenishes the sap in the tree, allowing it to flow again during the next warm period. If the temperature gets too warm too soon, the season will be over. The vigor of the prior growing season can also affect syrup production as sugars are produced during photosynthesis.However, most producers agree that the weather during the sugaring season is much more important than the weather leading up to it.“It’s agriculture,” says Rob Lamothe of Lamothe’s sugarhouse in Burlington, Conn. “You do the best you can to be prepared and some years you have banner production and others you don’t.” The Lamothes have put out about 5,000 taps this year, the largest operation in the state. “This certainly is a strange year. Last year we were tapping with snowshoes on, and didn’t start production until the second week of March because of the cold. This year, some guys were already tapped in January and are producing.”Some people are worried about the sugar content of the sap. This doesn’t seem to be an issue here. We collected our first run at the Audubon Center last weekend (the earliest ever for us). Though we don’t officially test the sugar content of our sap, an analytic “taste test” of the clear liquid indicated that it was as sweet if not sweeter than previous years. Lamothe tests the sugar content of each of his runs and told me that his currently is around 2.8 to 2.9 percent sugar, which is on the high range of sugar content for maple sap. On the flip side, a sugarmaker in New Hampshire did some initial tests of his trees that indicated the sugar content of his sap was down 1 percent. That’s a lot when sap is usually only at 2 to 3 percent sugar to begin with.Jodi Bronson of Great Mountain Forest (GMF) in Norfolk and Falls Village put out 360 of this year’s almost 500 taps on Friday, Feb. 10. He looked at 60 years’ worth of sapping records and found that the earliest GMF had ever tapped was Feb. 12, in 1999. “Without the snow cover and deep frost in the ground I don’t believe it will be a long maple season, it will be short and sweet,” said Bronson. This is a common sentiment among sugarmakers, who are worried that the lack of snow cover will not keep the trees as cold as they need to be at night to produce a good sap flow. Others say that it is the air temperature that makes the difference and as long as the nights are cold and the days are warm, it will be the longest season ever.“Mother Nature is in charge,” Lamothe said. “We can’t control it and we hope for the best. There is nothing like working in the woods and as long as we take care of our trees and forests, they will come through for us.”About this year’s season, both Lamothe and Bronson said: “Ask me in April.” In the meantime, we will be boiling at the Audubon Center in Sharon as long as we have sap. The sugarhouse is open to the public. Look for the Boiling Today sign at the entrance, or give us a call. For a full sugaring experience, join us for MapleFest on March 17. Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).